Thanks for the feedback. At this point it appears that I can hold
the users to a predefined size and precision. Does Oracle store
fixed point numbers in such a way that you get back exactly what you
entered?

For numeric data where you can't exactly define the size & precision use
a
plain old number data type. It's the equivalent of float or double. I do
not
allow numeric data to be stored in a char or varchar field because someone
sooner or later is going to slide the following into the database "where
<field_name> = 0.086" which is equivalent to "where to_number(<field_name>)
=
0.086". The bad point here is that the index I'll be asked to create is now
useless.

We have an mechanical CAD application where we will be storing
values like bolt diameter and hole sizes. As far as I know,
these numbers will not be used in any computations, but it is
important the the number retrieved be exactly what was put in.
For example, if they put in 0.086 the should not get out 0.08599).

If I use a format like number(4,3), will this give me the result
that I want or should I use char(5)?

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Received on Tue Jul 16 2002 - 11:53:39 CDT